AS Results!! Need HELP please...

Annisele

GeneHunt wrote: »

Is it possible that she "can't do" Econmics do you think? She is up for resitting her Economics AS papers to improve her mark.

If she can cope with Maths and English Lit, I think it's exceptionally unlikely that she's somehow unable to cope with Economics. It might be something that's relatively easy to fix - eg that her exam technique for Economics is poor. Did she do mocks and get decent feedback on them?

Lokolo

Typical offer at Sussex for Economics BSc is AAB-ABB, so she will need around these to even receive an offer. As MrsManda says, a call to admissions would be very useful - but not yet, she has another few months before having to submit UCAS but her A2 choices will need to be done, you haven't said if she is dropping 1 subject or continuing on with all 4?

I would also point out that things can easily change in the year. I got a mid C for Business Studies AS Level. Come results day for A2 I found out I got 487/600 in Business Studies - 3 marks off an A, how I wish I retook the earlier units (where I got around 60-70% in!).

GeneHunt_2

Annisele wrote: »

If she can cope with Maths and English Lit, I think it's exceptionally unlikely that she's somehow unable to cope with Economics. It might be something that's relatively easy to fix - eg that her exam technique for Economics is poor. Did she do mocks and get decent feedback on them?

Thank you for your post. I honestly don't remember how she got on in her mocks:cool: How does she go about improving her exam technique in a specific subject?

GeneHunt_2

Lokolo wrote: »

Typical offer at Sussex for Economics BSc is AAB-ABB, so she will need around these to even receive an offer. As MrsManda says, a call to admissions would be very useful - but not yet, she has another few months before having to submit UCAS but her A2 choices will need to be done, you haven't said if she is dropping 1 subject or continuing on with all 4?

She is dropping Maths. She does have AAB at AS level; just not in Economics!

Person_one

Does she really enjoy economics?

What about biology?

GeneHunt_2

Person_one wrote: »

Does she really enjoy economics?

What about biology?

She really does enjoy Economics but I think her confidence has been knocked a little getting the C.

During the year she was mostly worried about the Maths (and that took up a great deal of her efforts.)

Biology? Well she does seem to have decided that she doesn't want to do that. A lot of Biology courses ask for chemistry which she can't offer. Also even the A level Biology is a lot of chemistry.

Me and the wife don't mind what she does but she only gets one go and we don't want her quitting half way through.

gentlepurr

I agree with the other poster, and wonder if its exam technique, rather than the subject that caused the lower mark. Your daughter can ask the school to obtain her exam paper back so that she can go through it with her teacher to see where she lost marks. If her heart is in economics, i think she should follow her heart, its the only way she will be happy in her chosen career. She may well be able to resit a part of her AS next year.

My ds got poor AS grades last year, and in his personal statement he wrote about his passion for his subject, briefly acknowledging his low grade. His subject teacher and head of 6th gave him glowing reports and he had offers in his subject from four out of five Unis that he approached, so all is far from lost for your daughter,

Good luck! And well done to your daughter for such brill grades!!

gp x

nabeelv

I would tell her to resit the economics paper I did economics to As-level and it really is down to the paper sometimes. Though if she is wanting to drop maths maybe she should really look into what an economics degree entails as from what I know, economics in most universities is 60% maths and uni's may look negatively if she drops it. Also when applying to uni's I don't think you need to state your grades to the uni ( didn't when I was applying except oxbridge), they will just use predicted grades if you don't state them so depending on what the teacher thinks your daughter is capable of, so possibly would help to speak to her and find out what she will be predicting your daughter. I would recommend she drop biology as if she was doing an economics degree Eng lit and maths will help. As for an English lit degree, its a great subject but as someone else said job prospects are not as good as economics.

Though don't take what I said as truth I went through this process a few years ago, things have probably changed and i'm a medical student but most of my friends did economics and I was weighing up between economics and medicine during A-levels. Hope this helps

GeneHunt_2

Thank you for your reply nabeelv.

She liked the Economics course at Sussex because it is one of the few around that doesn't require A2 Maths - but you raise a good point. I will encourage her to check out the course further to make sure it isn't too "mathsy" for her. She's good at Maths (not outstanding but good) but has just lost interest in it/passion for it...:o

Annisele

I agree with the people suggesting to drop biology rather than maths. Admittedly I've never formally studied economics (just a few bits and pieces that I needed for my job), but I found my maths degree helpful for those bits and pieces.

When I was a student it took me a while to even work out that I needed to use a different exam technique for different subjects - if she hasn't twigged that yet, it might explain things :-) For maths, I just needed to work through all the questions in the order they were there on the paper, and answer everything - no worrying about time, or the amount of detail the examiner required, or anything like that. For economics, it's possible that her answers aren't as detailed as required - or that they're too detailed, and she's running out of time - or even that she's just writing down everything she knows about the subject, and hence not answering the question.